Oxford Handbook page proofs - round 2

Over the past week Helen Blake and I have been reviewing the second round of page proofs for The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. It is a very complex book filled with phonetic symbols and many orthographies from across the world. It is also a book that I have standardised with every chapter presented in exactly the same way so that people can compare one language and dialect with another. The book has been written by 173 authors speaking 75 languages and dialects. These factors make the typesetting phase very complicated. We are nearly there...

I am so proud of this amazing book - I can't wait until it is published in June so that the world can share the contents.

Here is the link to the book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-speech-development-in-languages-of-the-world-9780192868862 

Here is the view out of my window across the autumn leaves as I finalise the page proofs:

Here is a paper that Helen and I wrote about the work we have been doing to support multilingual children's speech: 

McLeod, S., & Blake, H. L. (2026). Global knowledge in 131 languages and dialects about children’s speech development, assessment, and intervention. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2026.2635344 
 

 

Oxford Handbook page proofs

This year has begun with the arrival of 1500 pages of The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World. Every word and page must be checked over the next few weeks to ensure that the entire book is ready for publication. It is a BIG job - but I am thrilled to finally see this fantastic resource in its close to final form. Thanks to Dr Helen Blake who is assisting me and to the diligent chapter authors who have checked the orthography and typesetting so carefully.

1500 pages - 9cm double sided!

Sharynne with the page proofs at the Children's Voices Centre @ The Treehouse in Bathurst, Australia

Helen with lot of paper to be read (this is double sided)

Helen and Sharynne online ready for the work ahead

Here is the OUP website for the book:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-speech-development-in-languages-of-the-world-9780192868862
 
Published: 16 June 2026 (Estimated)
Length: 1552 Pages
 
VIDEOS and WEBSITE
Our videos will remain freely available on the Multilingual Children’s Speech website

• Multilingual Children's Speech Development (free videos): https://multilingual-childrens-speech-development.csu.domains/by-language/
• YouTube: https://research.csu.edu.au/multilingual-speech-playlist 
• Multilingual Children's Speech Website, under 'Speech Acquisition' and then ' Multilingual children's speech development' https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-acquisition/multilingual-childrens-speech-development

 
BOOK LAUNCH
Here are some lovely photos from our launch at the International Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference in Greece in 2025: https://speakingmylanguages.blogspot.com/2025/06/launch-of-oxford-handbook-of-speech.html
 

Checking page proofs takes a long time

I have been checking page proofs for the following manuscripts. The copyeditors and typesetters have done a good job - but there are many tiny things that need to be corrected prior to publication:

JSLHR-21-00669
Status:	In Production
Authors:	Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, Kate Margetson, Van H. Tran, Cen Wang, Ben Phạm, Lily To, Kylie Huynh
Title:	Multilingual Speech Acquisition by Vietnamese-English–Speaking Children and Adult Family Members
Actions:
There are no pending actions for this manuscript.

PERSP-22-00239
Status:	In Production
Authors:	Sharynne McLeod, Nicole McGill, Stacey Baldac, Gail Mulcair
Title:	Australia’s Speech-Language Pathology Profession and Its Global Impact

Page proofs

We have had a number of papers accepted for publication recently - so now we are enjoying checking the page proofs. I really enjoy having to sit and read our work carefully from cover to cover after time away from the paper. I am frequently surprised by the quality and quantity of work reported within an individual paper - and am proud of our team for their rigour and committment to making a difference in children's lives.

We have checked, or have been told the proofs will be coming soon for:

1. McLeod, S., Verdon, S., Tran, V. H., Margetson, K., & Wang, C., (2022). SuperSpeech: Multilingual speech and language maintenance intervention for Vietnamese-Australian children and families via telepractice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00146 
2. Tran, V. H., Verdon, S., McLeod, S., & Wang, C. (2022). Family language policies of Vietnamese-Australian families. Journal of Child Science. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1743490 
3. McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J. & Holliday, E. L. (2021, in press December). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. 
4. To, C. K. S., McLeod, S., Law, T. & Sam, K. L. (2022, in press January). Predicting who will normalize without intervention for speech sound disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.